======================================================================== 1973 X-Delivery-Notice: SMTP MAIL FROM does not correspond to sender. Received: from SMSVMA (SMTP) by SMSVMA.BITNET (Mailer R2.08 R208004) with BSMTP id 3554; Mon, 07 Jun 93 19:23:52 CDT Received: from netcom4.netcom.com by vma.smsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with TCP; Mon, 07 Jun 93 19:22:44 CDT Received: by netcom4.netcom.com (5.65/SMI-4.1/Netcom) id AA29264; Mon, 7 Jun 93 17:23:42 -0700 From: mrhyde@netcom.com (Mr. Hyde) Message-Id: <9306080023.AA29264@netcom4.netcom.com> Subject: APDI: [MI][AU][Storm] Teonyl: Shelter From The Storm [ADMIN] [AU] [HouseStorming] Returning home... [AU] [HouseStorming] [NKIT] Andrea Meets Azariah [BBD] [AU] Kadrys: Old Friends and New [AU] Callus Plots Revenge--And Someone Else Plots With Him [AU] Callnetcom4 To: CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu (Chris Meadows) Date: Mon, 7 Jun 93 17:23:41 PDT X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11] Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Path: netcom.com!csus.edu!wupost!gumby!destroyer!cs.ubc.ca!alberta!kakwa.ucs.ualberta .ca!atlantis!aaron From: aaron@atlantis.uucp (Aaron Humphrey) Subject: [MI][AU][Storm] Teonyl: Shelter From The Storm Message-ID: <1993Apr19.030803.23661@atlantis.uucp> Reply-To: aaron%atlantis@uunet.uu.net Organization: Atlantis Communications, Edmonton, AB, Canada X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL9] Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1993 03:08:03 GMT Lines: 123 Characters involved: Teonyl, Alfvaen, Mary Littlefair Characters involved peripherally: Sheryl, Rowan Littlefair, everyone else currently in the Inn Teonyl woke with a warm body beside her in the bed. The bed was not made to hold two, and others may have called it cozy, but Teonyl was used to her space. Usually she found it easy to get to sleep when sharing a bed, in the afterglow of lovemaking, but waking up wasn't as pleasant. Carefully she disentwined herself from her companion. What was his name again? Alfvaen, that was it. "You awake?" he mumbled. "'Time is it?" "Just a sec," she said. She opened one of the shutters and peeked out at the sky. It was still quite dark out, but the noise of the city sounded like late morning. The gloom came from overhanging dark cloud. "Morning sometime. The weather doesn't look so great." She sniffed the wind, but couldn't tell much. Being used to inland cities, she was doubly disadvantaged, not having either the coast-dweller's or countryman's sense of weather. Still, she knew what looked like a storm in the air. Alfvaen moaned slightly. She recalled him making a point of not having a drink the night before, so he couldn't have a hangover. Maybe he was just cramped, like she was. She started going through her morning's stretches, trying to ignore the morning-after-a-one-night-stand awkwardness. At least she hoped that was all it was--she wasn't ready for too much more than a one-nighter. She didn't want to put down roots anywhere until she felt sure she was safe again--maybe never. She'd lived that way before the Florians, and would again. She was just a bit out of practice. Alfvaen watched her stretches with sleepily lustful admiration. "C'mere and let's get you warmed up properly," he murmured. She laughed. "All right." *** They ate breakfast together at Nester's Inn, taking advantage of the gap between breakfast and lunch crowds. Perhaps this could be a one-nighter that turned into friendship, Teonyl thought. "So what do you do in the city?" she asked. "Investigation," he said. "The day I came into the city, I checked out ads for this place, Moriarty Investigations. Turned out they needed my help, so I signed up. It's been...interesting work." Luck must be with her. A friend in an investigation agency was just the thing she'd need to search for her sister. "That's a stroke of luck," she said. "One of the reasons I came to Generica is that I'm...looking for someone. I may want your help with that later. But right now I have to figure out some way to get the money to pay you, right? Unless you work for free..." She grinned. Alfvaen grinned back. "No, I don't think we work for free. Hmmm...well, most adventuring-type jobs are posted in the Dragon's Inn. You been there yet?" She shook her head. "I don't blame you. I've never been comfortable in the company of 'career' adventurers anyway. Still, here in Generica you get a bit better class, usually. And the barkeep, Rowan Littlefair, is a nice guy." "I'll check that out, then," Teonyl said. "Before the weather gets any worse. And I'll get back to you when I can afford you..." *** Teonyl was in sight of the Plaza of Glittering Steel when the first rain started to fall. It felt more like hail than rain, though. She cursed as it pounded her head and started to run. When she hit the Plaza proper, she skidded on the slick metal(stupid, stupid, should've expected that)and sprawled facedown. Dazed, it was a couple of minutes before she picked herself up. She heard thundercracks off in the distance, several in succession. Some part of her brain whispered metal, lightning, bad bad bad. When it penetrated, she cursed again and pulled herself up. A bit muddy, and very soaked, but damned if she was going to get fried by lightning standing in the middle of a huge sheet of metal. The downpour was thick enough to obscure the vision, but she could make out the Dragon's Inn sign and made that way. As long as they hadn't bolted the door...no, they hadn't. Erevan be praised for his restraint. She pulled open the door, struggling against the gale-force winds which had come up when she hadn't noticed, and finally managed to pull herself inside. The thick door closed and everything suddenly seemed quieter. She could hear the gentle strains of a lute, and hushed conversation. Standing a bit more firmly now(her left knee crying a bit ungraciously in pain), she surveyed the inhabitants. Standard adventurer-types (mostly--a unicorn there, how ostentatious, hope she didn't scare it off), but she didn't focus on any of them. A bar, a barkeep, the Rowan Littlefair Alfvaen had mentioned, no doubt. A fire. Yes, the fire got priority. She was soaked, and all her clothes were at Nester's except what she was wearing, and damned if she was going to skin down in front of an innful of adventurers, so it looked like she'd have to dry her clothes and herself at the same time, sitting in front of the fire. She walked over to the fire, limping slightly, and sat as close as she could. Blessed warmth. "You must be soaked, dearie," a voice said from her elbow. She turned to see a matronly woman standing behind her, looking solicitous. She nodded. "I think I'll be okay if I can sit at the fire and dry off," she said. "But a hot mulled cider would be just right." "Coming right up," the other woman said cheerfully. "I'm Mary Littlefair, by the way." Teonyl considered giving a false name, but she'd already told her real one to Alfvaen, so, caution to the winds. "Teonyl," she said. Mary brought her her cider a few minutes later, and Teonyl sipped it gratefully. Eventually she started to get warm. She could hear the storm outside get even louder, and shuddered. Finally she was warm enough to wonder about the employment opportunities Alfvaen had mentioned. There was some kind of board with bits of parchment pinned to it--maybe that was it? She went to investigate. -- ---Alfvaen(1969 Books, 1101 Albums, And Counting) "The word 'semen' is included in the word 'basement'." --Gooley Current Album--Richard Thompson:Across A Crowded Room Current Read--Nicole Luiken:Ribbons Red Path: netcom.com!csus.edu!wupost!CSM560.smsu.edu!vma.smsu.edu.Ext!CHM173S From: CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu.Ext (Andrea and Sheryl (Chris Meadows)) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [ADMIN] [AU] [HouseStorming] Returning home... Date: Mon, 19 Apr 93 13:15:04 CDT Organization: Organization for Character Rights Lines: 107 Message-ID: <16BB5BA58.CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu.Ext> NNTP-Posting-Host: vma.smsu.edu Keywords: Andrea unicorn Sheryl Blaze Lance [AU] [HouseStorming] X-Newsreader: NNR/VM S_1.3.2 ADMIN: Hi, this is Andrea and Sheryl, writing for the [AU] thread while our author is indisposed. This is the last part of the recent post by Christopher Motherway, but rewritten by us because the original version had a few inaccuracies. Note that this is in no way a flame against Christopher Motherway, who really was great for letting us use Raoh as part of our background--we just want to be sure that everything written about us is as correct as possible. Also, the original post by Christopher Motherway was set "a week after the storm." However, the current timeframe in which our thread is set is the next day. Therefore, we have gotten Christopher's permission to set the time frame for his post to the next day. Thanks! Now on with the show. ----------------------------------------------------------------- (Previously, in Christopher Motherway's post, Lance and Blaze came back to Generica the day after the big storm had hit. They went to the Dragon's Inn, to find out what had happened.) (Previously, in the [AU] thread, Andrea and Sheryl (that's us! :) have had their fortune told by Enn Piecy, then Sheryl was measured for the curse removal by Kardia. After this, Andrea and Sheryl returned to their rooms for a while, ----------------------------------------------------------------- Littlefair then told about the storm and how the Inn faired in it; how it was changed into a sort of hospital/shelter for whoever stumbled into it. "If not for Andrea, the Inn would look far worse." "Andrea?" said Lance. "Oh, yes, you HAVE been gone long, haven't you? She came in a couple of days before the storm. Don't know much about her, but...Hey, there she is now." He pointed to the young woman in her mid-twenties, sitting at a nearby table. "Hey, Andrea!" he called out. She looked up, got up, came over to the bar, with Sheryl following her. Lance and Blaze turned to see the young woman, smile on her face, as Littlefair introduced them. Then Blaze looked at the creature by her side, and started to cry again. She knelt down to the animal and said, "I...I don't believe it...Lance, it is a...a...a unicorn! A true unicorn!" Andrea said, "Well, sort of..." Lance was amazed as well. He had always thought of unicorns as fables. Even when Blaze told her of a time her father claimed to have played chess with such a creature and even had a painting to prove it (The painting was never recovered)! Then he asked, "Sort of? What is `sort of' a unicorn?" Andrea shrugged. "She just is." "So," Littlefair said, "How did your quest go?" Lance smiled. "Raoh the Conquerer will conquer no more." Andrea's eyes lit up. "You...you killed Raoh?!?" "Yes." Tears came to Andrea's eyes. "Thank you," she said. Sheryl nickered. What? Lance wondered. "Hold on. A _group_ of us killed him. I believe Tarkyn was the one who actually slew him. Why are you so happy about this?" "Because that bastard destroyed my village and killed my mother! And he left Raykor--one of his underlings, a wizard--behind to perform his...EXPERIMENTS...on the surviving villagers." The expressions on Lance and Blazes's faces spoke volumes. "What happened? Please tell us," Blaze asked. "Well...you did rid the world of Raoh, so I suppose you do deserve to hear it." Andrea related the story of when Raoh had visited, how Raykor had changed Sheryl, how she had become a thief. Blaze petted Sheryl and said, "Such a pity; to be transformed into a hunted creature for the sole purpose of assuaging Raykor's hurt ego. That is truly evil!" Andrea nodded, and said, "Yes...for ten years or more I've been wandering this world looking for a cure. Now that I've finally found one--'Raelf helped me out--I found that Sheryl doesn't actually want to be changed back." Sheryl whinnied and nodded in agreement. "In fact, she can't be--her human shape is gone, completely wiped out. But we will lift the curse, all the same." Lance looked at Blaze, but Blaze said, "No, beloved, I cannot lift curses. I have never learned." Andrea had been about to ask, but, by the way Sheryl was almost attracted to Blaze, she knew Blaze was some sort of magician. "It's not necessary, anyway," Andrea said. "A friend of ours who is an experienced cursebreaker has agreed to help in that matter." Just then, she had an idea. "Hey, I just bought a house which I need help debugging." At their look, she explained about how the master thief had built it full of traps, then died without revealing the secrets. "Perhaps you two could join me in disarming the traps?" Lance and Blaze looked at each other. Then they looked back and Lance said, "M'lady, we would be honored. After all, we have something in common...er, rather, HAD something in common: hatred for Raoh. Littlefair? Two Murduk Whiskers and whatever drink Andrea wants." After a pause, he added, "And...add in a small salad for Sheryl." Sheryl neighed in delight, having not have eaten for a while. After their drinks, Blaze said, "Whenever the expedition is ready to begin, head up to room 13A. One of us is bound to be there, and we will join you." Andrea nodded. "Thanks," she said, putting down her mug of stout ale. "We'll remember that." ----------------------------------------------------------------- -- Chris Meadows || Andrea & Sheryl CHM173S@SMSVMA.BITNET || [AU] thread, alt.pub.dragons-inn CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU || -------------------------------- CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU || A supporter of rec.arts.creative Path: netcom.com!csus.edu!wupost!CSM560.smsu.edu!vma.smsu.edu.Ext!CHM173S From: CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu (Andrea and Sheryl (Chris Meadows)) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [AU] [HouseStorming] [NKIT] Andrea Meets Azariah Date: Fri, 23 Apr 93 01:00:29 CDT Organization: Organization for Uncreative Organization Names Lines: 126 Message-ID: <16BB9E2E.CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu.Ext> NNTP-Posting-Host: vma.smsu.edu Keywords: [AU] [Housestorming] [NKIT] Andrea Sheryl Azariah X-Newsreader: NNR/VM S_1.3.2 ADMIN: Andrea and Sheryl here once again, with another exciting [AU] installment! Well, maybe not exciting per se, but at least interesting. Anyway, here it is. Our thanks to Geoff Stewart, for allowing Azariah to collaborate and writing the table conversation in this entry. On with the tale! Andrea sat in the common room, finishing lunch with her two new friends, Blaze and Lance. They had been talking together, telling tales of the past and of the defeat of Raoh, and were just shoving their plates back when they were greeted by a strange spectacle. A young man with dark hair, blue eyes, and green clothing stood in front of another table, kneeling and making nickering sounds. Sheryl nickered in response and trotted over to him, and they conversed in whinnytalk. Sheryl seemed quite excited. Andrea stood, walked up to the youth. He looked up at her, nickered, then cleared his throat as she looked at him blankly. "Hello! I have not seen a unicorn in many wheres or whens!" he said, sounding almost childlike in his excitement. Sheryl whinnied at him. Though none of the others understood, Azariah heard Sheryl say, "Who are you?" "I'm Azariah," he whinnied back. "I'm from Otherplace." "How can you talk my talk?" Sheryl knew it probably wasn't phrased properly, but she really didn't pay much attention to spoken grammar. "Because you're magic, and I'm magic," Azariah replied simply. He looked closer at her. That was odd...she seemed to be a unicorn, and yet...somehow, not ENTIRELY a unicorn. "Excuse me," Andrea said, a little frustrated to be ignored by someone who was apparently talking to her sister, "but just who are you?" "I'm Azariah," he said. "I'm from Otherplace." "And just where is that?" Andrea asked. Azariah simply shrugged. "Other Wheres and Whens." Blaze tapped Andrea on the shoulder. "Whoever this is, he's magical," she whispered. "He knows magic?" Andrea whispered back. "No, he IS magic," Blaze said. "Don't ask me how I know, but he's highly magical, and not what he appears to be." "Can you tell if he's evil, or has evil intent?" Blaze concentrated, then shook her head. "I don't think so." "Well, he SEEMS friendly enough..." Andrea said, watching him playing with Sheryl, who was ordinarily an excellent judge of character. She made up her mind. "Hi, Azariah," she said. "I'm Andrea, and this is my friend Sheryl." Azariah stood up, and shook hands. "I'm Azariah," he said. "Would you like to sit with us, Azariah?" asked Blaze. "All right," the boy replied. Then he turned to Andrea. "How is it that this one is a Unicorn yet not a Unicorn?" This led into a long discussion about Andrea and Sheryl, and Blaze and Lance. Andrea skirted around the nature of her and Sheryl's childhood and merely hinted that Sheryl's condition was the result of powerful magic, an answer Azariah seemed to accept for the nonce. Lance noticed that the boy rarely contibuted to the conversation, except to prod on one of the others, and for the most part sat back and listened. Lance decided to try and get the boy to open up. "So tell us Azariah, is Otherplace very far away?" asked the amiable knight. Azariah looked concerned a moment and then spoke. "It is many Wheres and Whens away from this place." He seemed to have trouble explaining it. Blaze spoke up. "How did you come to Generica?" "I cast myself upon the Winds." The others looked curiously at him, especially Andrea. "You rode in on the storm?" Andrea looked puzzled and Sheryl nickered curiously. "Yes...and no...I'm not sure of the words for it..." Azariah seemd upset. The others were silent a moment and then Blaze spoke up. "Perhaps it would be easier if you told us where you were before you came to Generica, and THEN told us how you came here." Andrea smiled a reassuring smile. Azariah brightened... "Yes, that is a wise idea." Azariah sighed, collected himself, and began... "The Where and When where I was before I came here was called Hearn." His blue eyes clouded over and began to turn silvery. "It was a large and beautiful world, with two large continents and spacous oceans. For centuries all was well on Hearn--the people were warlike, but basically good. There was little magic, so the people developed the sciences to make up for the lack. "With the growth of the sciences, there came a conflict between the people of the two continents. They fought over the use of Hearns resources, it's minerals and ores. Then a war started. The weapons were simple at first, but grew more and more complicated and powerful. The war went on for many years, each side coming to hate the other more, for real and imagined slights and offenses. "Finally, each side developed an Ultimate Weapon, to be used only if the other side used theirs. Then there was an accident. An earthquake occured on one of the continents, and it caused that continent's ultimate weapon to fire. Then the other continent's ultimate weapon fired. "The sad thing is that both sides knew that it was an accident caused by the earthquake, but neither could stop their weapon once it had fired." Azariah's breath caught in his throat, and he stopped for a moment, swallowed, then went on. "I tried to save Hearn, but the energies of the weapons hurt me greatly, and I could not help them. The planet began to break apart and I cast myself upon the Winds. I floated upon them for a time, then the storm that attacked this city, the magic in the storm, attracted me to this Where and When." Tears fell from the boy's eyes, which returned to their blue color. The others around the table were silent, each thinking their own private thoughts about Azariah's story. Finally Andrea spoke up. "You tried to save that world...How?" "I had spent a long time in the Where and When of Hearn, and had come to understand the...Rules of that place. I tried to use my magic to work with the Rules, but the weapons hurt me." Azariah wiped a few more tears away from his eyes and then looked up. "I am tired now." The boy looked to Sheryl. "Friend Sheryl, you have but to call me when you need me and I will be there. Goodbye, my new friends." And with that, Azariah stood up and walked out the door. Sheryl trotted after him, and Andrea walked right behind Sheryl. But when they got outside, the street was empty except for an errant gust of wind that swirled the dust and debris piled along the Arcade of Glittering Steel... -- Chris Meadows || Andrea & Sheryl CHM173S@SMSVMA.BITNET || [AU] thread, alt.pub.dragons-inn CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU || -------------------------------- CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU || A supporter of rec.arts.creative Subject: [BBD] [AU] Kadrys: Old Friends and New [headers lost, but was written by Andrea Evan, with Chris Meadows] In the Dragon's Inn, a man sat staring into the flames. He sat so still that his lean features looked more like a sculpture than a living face: the pale skin had the dry gleam of burnished bone. The eyes were lost in softening shadows cast by the lowered, pensive tilt of the head. Then, with a start, the momentary illusion dispersed: he leaned back in his chair, shaking his head and smiling crookedly as if in ironic amusement at his thoughts. At that moment, the door to the street opened and Lancos entered, followed closely by a young girl with one hand clutching a strange doll (some sort of cloth dragon, its bead eyes bright in the firelight). Her other hand clung to a tall middle-aged man, whom Kadrys recognised as Lancos' companion from Luthor and Serene's party. They looked round a moment, then Lancos led them toward Kadrys' seat. Kadrys nodded in silent greeting as Lancos introduced the girl Lissa. The other man introduced himself as Darvos Metnar. Kadrys' ear for language picked up on the soft roll that Darvos gave the 'r' sound: a sign of the eastern baronies. Lancos gave his favorite expression, the 'I know something _you_ don't!' grin, and prompted Darvos to talk a little about his interests. Darvos shrugged faintly and started: "Well, for some time now I have been conducting research - without success, due to a lack of subjects - into vampirism." Kadrys shot a sudden sideways glance at Lancos, who only widened the grin. 'A researcher,' thought Kadrys. 'Great. Just what I need, a game of Twenty Thousand Questions. I think I'll just buy out of it right here.' Kadrys glanced casually in Darvos' direction. "Really? How interesting..." he said lightly, "I hope you have success someday in your search for a subject..." Kadrys glanced sideways at Lancos, whose grin had faded a little, but who showed no real signs of wishing to tell Darvos what Kadrys had not. Darvos added "Actually, I have recently grown weary of the search..." Lancos interjected with hasty relief, "Yes, now he's looking into some problems I've been having lately..." Kadrys took in the emphasis Lancos placed on the word "problems", and turned, smiling, to Darvos. "Don't tell me you're involved with one of Lancos' adventures..." (directing a look of sarcastic affection at the tall redhead) "If you are, Darvos, then I've got only one piece of advice: if he starts wearing a medallion, look out!" Darvos of course just looked bewildered at this, but when Kadrys saw Lancos' sudden, stricken stare, Kadrys cursed himself inwardly for not having anticipated Lancos' overreaction to his black sense of humour. Kadrys smiled to make it clear to Lancos that his remark was meant in jest. He reached out to clap Lancos reassuringly on the shoulder and said to Darvos, "Don't mind me. A private joke. Lancos and I go back a fair way. Good luck in your endeavours..." As Lancos and his friends took their seats at an empty table and ordered a meal, Kadrys' glance wandered round the room, taking in any changes in the Inn's furnishings and clientele. He smiled warmly at Serene as she hurried past carrying baskets of hot food for those left without homes by the storm. Kadrys' relief at seeing her safe and well after the recent upheaval was uncharacteristically clear in his expression, but he made no attempt to speak to her, knowing she would prefer not to be delayed in her work. Kadrys' restless gaze was caught by several new notices pinned to the Inn's board. He remembered back to when the board had carried the same old yellowing bits of paper month after month. Clearly there were several new arrivals in town. He didn't bother to get up, but sat where he was, reading the notices from across the room, despite the famous darkness of the Inn. 'A _female_ roommate. Nice idea, shame about the qualifier!' he grinned silently. 'What else? Usual adventurers-seeking-quests... Well now, what's this? A housestorming?' Kadrys' black eyes glinted with sudden, amused interest. 'Ahh that takes me back. When was the last time I took part in a trapsweep? Would've been when Jhalamin the sixty-fifth Eminence of Candlemoth died, about five centuries before I left Atros. Jhalamin. Now _there_ was one _selfish_ old madman, thought if he couldn't take the chateau and treasury with him then he'd do his damnedest to make sure no-one else'd ever set foot in the place. Pretty much succeeded too. The traps'd weeded out most of his heirs and most of their best men before our attempt. The whole damn dynasty would've been overrun by the Tenregesk if the sixty-seventh Eminence hadn't had the sense to sell his share of the estate after we'd swept it, and buy some halfway-competent mercs.' He glanced up at a sound of light, hard rapping on the boards of the staircase. His eyes widened in surprise as he saw, trotting down the stairs leading up to the Inn's sleeping chambers, the same young unicorn filly he'd seen playing in the Arcade of Fountains, some time ago. Hastily, so hastily that human eyes would never have seen the movement, he left his seat and dove for the nearest dark corner, almost landing in the lap of the Inevitable Mysterious Black Clad Lurker installed in that particular corner. He treated the Lurker to a very white, _very_ sharp smile, and the Lurker grudgingly shifted aside to make room for him, muttering with cabalistic resentment. From this vantage point, Kadrys watched as a youth, (seemingly normal apart from an oddity of genetics or fashion sense which showed itself in his dark purple hair) approached the unicorn, whinnying to her in oddly musical, ringing tones, to which the filly eagerly responded in kind. Kadrys watched as the young man sat at at the table of a warrior and a sorceress (evidently a couple), and a brown-haired girl in her teens, who was greeted with a nuzzle by the unicorn. Kadrys listened as the young man told the others at the table a story. He watched as the tale drew to a close and the purple-haired youth and the older couple departed for the moment, leaving the girl and the unicorn alone at the table. Kadrys had listened to the tale with only half an ear. While the youth was speaking, most of the vampire's mind had been given over to his own speculations. Judging by the friendly reception the unicorn had given the young man's overtures, she was nowhere near as haughty and highly-strung as most unicorns Kadrys had, admittedly briefly, encountered. Fascinating. Perhaps she had been tamed by her association with that girl. Kadrys transferred his attention to the brown-haired girl who sat by the unicorn, running her fingertips idly through the braided mane. He had noticed the canny awareness of her manner, the reserve and poise. He had also noted the hidden dagger-sheath, concealed almost too well for even his eyes to detect. 'Almost certainly a thief. Whatever she is, she's as much a cosseted maiden as I'm a priest. So whatinHell is she doing partnered to a unicorn, of all things? Hah, this is _almost_ intriguing enough to be worth showing myself. _If_ I could get a straight answer from that girl while dodging her pet's horn at the same time, that is...' Then he heard one of the girl's departing companions address her by name. Andrea. The name of the person organising the trapsweep: the house-storming as she'd called it. That decided him. He knew all about what curiosity supposedly did to cats, but he thought, 'The hell with it. If I can't avoid a half-grown filly in full view, I deserve to get skewered...' Andrea turned as a wiry man with black hair and deep black eyes appeared out of the nearest Dark Corner and moved toward her. Sheryl snorted explosively, shying away as if startled by his sudden appearance. She backpedaled and lowered her head. Her neck and haunches tightened, and she seemed to be gathering herself for a charge. The firelight flared, reflected off the tip of her horn, which in that moment looked for the first time more like a lethal spear than an elegant spiral adornment. "Sheryl!" the girl cried but the unicorn only flattened her ears, her blue eyes rolling with something unfathomable: something that might be rage, or terror, or simple uncertainty. The man's reaction was instantaneous: he dropped to his knees before her. Seemingly oblivious to the fact that both his chest and head were now within easy reach of that trembling lance, he smiled with surprising warmth, opening his arms to her in a gesture that at the same time invited her into a hug, and bared his heart to her strike. Then he spoke to her, his voice as soft and soothing as honey. "Ahhnow, what's the matter, little one?' he murmured slowly, 'Did I startle you, hmmm girl? C'mon, gently now, eaaasy..." His vulnerable posture, his quiet voice seemed to act together to calm the unicorn's edginess. The trembling tautness of her frame seemed to melt under the warm, constant flow of his words. The flattened ears perked up, the lowered head raised and she essayed a cautious sniff in his direction. Gradually, he climbed to his feet, holding out his open hand to stroke her velvet nose. She moved her head back, still unwilling for him to touch her, but the movement lacked the frantic tension of a moment earlier. Kadrys shrugged a little and backed away. "Shy, isn't she?" he smiled wryly at Andrea. Andrea blinked. "Not usually..." she whispered to herself, narrowing her eyes in thought as he moved toward her. Andrea's professional instincts took in the total silence of his movements, and she nodded slightly with recognition as he drew near. Like knows like. Kadrys returned her nod, giving her a brief, close-lipped smile. "I hear you're looking round..." he muttered. It felt so good to be negotiating again, in the old style, the style where excess words and plain speaking were needed only by fools, bargaining with someone trained enough to understand. "Could be... What's it to ya?" she answered, making the traditional reply with just the right amount of mingled unconcern and sass. Of course no trace of an expression crossed the vampire's face, but inside, he was grinning from ear to ear. This was going to be _fun_. Subject: [Jiri] Dance of the Wolves Article missing -- corupted disk (sorry) Subject: [AU] [HouseStorming] Teonyl: Uh...excuse me? Article missing -- corrupted disk (sorry) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!uunet!pilchuck!li From: li@Data-IO.COM (Phyllis Rostykus) Subject: [AU] [MG] Hurry, Hurry, Hurry 'Til We're Done... Message-ID: <1993May11.000526.10767@data-io.com> Keywords: Kardia, Andrea, Sheryl, Mrs. Cludne, Weaver's Guild. Sender: news@data-io.com (The News) Organization: Data I/O Corporation Date: Tue, 11 May 1993 00:05:26 GMT Lines: 369 Kardia didn't see Jameson in the Guest Rooms hallway as she came out of her room, so she headed towards the main dome of the place. As she headed there she stopped in the middle of the hallway and frowned. The building, from the outside had resembled a giant beehive. Inside, the entire beehive structure were the main rooms of the house. There were no guest rooms from outside the building. She sighed and kept going. The door back to the main building opened easily; and she found Jameson eating with ar'Elya and 'Raelf. "Sorry I'm late," Kardia said as they looked up at her, "I had a little... uhm..." she chuckled, "trouble with dressing myself this morning..." She held up the remainder of the skirt. Jameson looked away with a smile on her face and ar'Elya laughed with Kardia. "What I don't get is this..." Kardia said as she walked up to the table. She showed them the packet of needles she'd already wrapped in her scarf once and wrapped them again. This time there was no surge. "It's really real..." 'Raelf nodded, "It's got the matter to matter." Kardia raised one eyebrow and ar'Elya took a breath. 'Raelf went on, "The guest wing is run by a reality processing unit, our kids invented it. Unit handles the furnishings and equipment for the guest wing. Works on some of the same principle as the lab, but better. Takes your expectations as input, and first builds a high-order illusion, then fills it in with a reality 'type. Used to be, only a sapient could do that kind of work. Anyway, if the processor hadn't rewritten some virtual matter into 'em, the needles woulda gone poof as well." "Fills them in with what?" asked Kardia. "'Life is complex...'" said Jameson with a small smile. Kardia looked at her blankly for split second, took a sharp breath in and then at 'Raelf. "She's got it..." he said. "Oh." said Kardia, "Then what was the surge I felt when I wrapped the needles the first time?" "The processing unit keeps a string on the things that it's built. For recycling purposes. Here... let me see that..." Kardia handed over the packet of needles. "Yup. It's snapped." 'Raelf handed them back. "Oh... sorry about that." said Kardia. 'Raelf thought a moment. "It's probably best though, if you're set to do your dispellings with 'em. The ambient magical fields mighta messed with your nettle cloth if the cloth was in the construction stages. If you like, I could make 'em for real for you in my shop upstairs, or you could do like you did with this one and dispell the field. But that whole basket seems to have gotten enough reality put into 'em to stand up to your cloth." Kardia looked at the basket, "How can I pay you back for them?" 'Raelf smiled, "I'll charge the Mage Guild for 'em. You'll be able to use 'em for Dasham's curse, right?" Kardia smiled back and nodded. "Right." she said and hugged the basket for just a moment and then set it down next to the rest of her stuff. Then she joined them for breakfast. * * * After breakfast, she spoke with 'Raelf for a moment to setup a meeting with him after she was done with Sheryl's cover so that they could get started with Dasham's curse; and then with Jameson about Andrea's housestorming and what her schedule was for the next three days. 'Raelf then showed her how to operate the gate to the Mages' Guild. Kardia exited the Mage Guild with clean laundry and a light step. She took one look backwards as she existed, still amazed by the insane architecture. She felt refreshed, renewed by her visit with her past. It had been the first completely dreamless nights sleep she'd had in some time. She still had an incredible sense of homesickness from all the tech that had been missing from her life, but the rest had made things better. The walk to the Dragon's Inn was quick and easy. She found Andrea in the main taproom. "Hiya, I thought about it some more, and it would be easier for me to do the cursebreaking if I were staying near you two. Would you have any problems putting me up in the Dragon's Inn for the three nights?" "No, I don't have a problem with that," Andrea said. "As a matter of fact, I was rather expecting that you would be needing a place to work, and I'm more than happy to pay for a room for you. Gods, Kardia, you're doing me the greatest favor anyone's ever done me in my entire life, and you think I'd worry about pocket change?" Kardia laughed softly, "I guess I don't think of that as pocket change, but, you're right. Compared to your house..." She grinned, "I'll be back around noon, then, to take you up on that offer." Kardia left with a lighter heart. * * * Mrs. Cludne's was cleaned up and the worst of the holes were already fixed. Kardia went in and looked around for the hostess, finally finding her in the kitchen with a crowd of cookie hungry grandchildren. "Hi." "Oh!" Mrs. Cludne patted her flour covered hands and came over to Kardia and gave the tall girl a hug. "We were worried about you, girl. Where were you?" "I was out, and by the time I realized what time it was, it was late enough that my host thought it'd be safer for me to stay than to try and walk across town." "Good for him." Mrs. Cludne gave Kardia a wink. Kardia blushed at the wink, not quite knowing how to deny what Mrs. Cludne might be implying without confirming it beyond all refute. She just gave up, knowing that the blush was incriminating as well. Then she realized that she now had a perfect excuse for leaving early, so she used it shamelessly. She batted her eyes at Mrs. Cluden and said, "Uhm... well. I now have a place that I can stay, so I'll be moving out today instead of at the end of the week. I'm sorry that I am not able to stay with you longer, the stay that I had was quite enjoyable..." Mrs Cludne patted Kardia's hand, leaving a faintly white mark. "It's all right, dearie, with the poor hospitality that we've given you, I'll be givin' your money back ta you... just a minute..." Kardia blinked in some confusion as Mrs. Cludne trotted off and came back with the gold that Kardia had paid for the week. The coins clinked into Kardia's hand. "But..." "But me no buts, girl. You've been a pleasure and you did so much of the entertaining and work during the storm time... Please do keep it." "I..." Kardia took a deep breath, "I would feel better at least paying for the first night and the food that I did eat during the storm." She looked up at the ceiling, "That must have taken some amount of money to rebuild..." She held out two of the five gold pieces. Mrs. Cludne smiled and took the money. "Your things are back here." She walked Kardia over to a locked closet. Kardia laughed softly. "It's been a pleasure doing business with you, Mrs. Cludne." She carefully gathered the larger runsack, the harp and case, the quiver and horsebow arrows. She distributed about herself and smiled to find it feeling lighter with her balance back. "Likewise, young lady. Please do come back sometime." Kardia smiled at the hostess, "I will if I need to." She bowed to the older woman, and walked off toward the Weaver's Guild. * * * Davida, the tall brunette that Kardia had seen the first second day that she'd been in Generica, was the one in the reception area. "Uhm... hi, I'm Joureyman Kardia Xvaramene...?" Kardia said, somewhat hesitantly. "How may I help you?" asked Davida with no trace of recognition. "I'd like... uhm... I guess I'd like to register two contracts wtih the Guild, so that they know what I'm doing." Davida pulled out a form and pulled out a pen and started filling in the name section. "Uhm. I can write." said Kardia, blushing. Davida gave Kardia a flat, tired smile and handed the form and pen over to Kardia. The form was labelled, and Kardia worked through it fairly quickly for Sheryl's coverlet. At the address of the employer, Davida whistled softly, and then at the price Kardia was getting for the contract, Davida blinked. "You sure you have that right?" she asked Kardia. "Yes. That's the price we agreed on, it's not only for the three days' work, but the materials involved." Kardia said absently as she filled in the fact that she was going to be staying at the Dragon's Inn as well. "Whooo..." said Davida softly, "Guess those adventurer types have money to throw around." As Kardia put in what she was making, Davida choked on laughter, "A unicorn cover?" She paused and the next was said with the delicacy one usually reserves for the insane. "You are working for a beast?" "No, her sister." Kardia said with a small smile. "Oh." Recognition dawned on Davida's face, "You're the one that broke the table!" Kardia blinked in complete confusion, "Excuse me?" "Your tablecloth broke the Guild's table." Kardia frowned and then sighed and relaxed, "I'm sorry, I just have no idea what you're talking about..." "Come on... Lyra!!" Davida called into the Hall, a young girl with brown hair popped out of the darkness, and cocked a head at the journeyman. "Wouldja watch the front just for a little? She's the one that made the tablecloth... I wanna show her what happened." The youngling turned wide eyes in Kardia and gulped as she nodded. Kardia followed Davida's long stride with a sense of forboding. It felt strange to be walking inside with all her things; and then she realized the strangeness was more because she was walking so easily and quickly. The speed wasn't much more, but it felt good. By the time they reached the Dining Hall, she realized that there were quite a few people in the Weavers' Guild, far more than she had seen the first time she was there. The work Hall was filled with people at various pieces of equipment. The Dining Hall had at least a dozen folks just working in the kitchen next to it. Kardia revised her estimate to at least a hundred if not that much again through the whole, rambling building. Davida pivoted neatly to a standstill next to a huge oak table that was resting on the ground. One of the legs was pulverized, the other three looked as if they'd broken off when the one leg gave way. "See?" "What did my tablecloth have to do with this?" asked Kardia. "When Master Torre," Kardia had to think and realized Davida was speaking of Annie, "and Cassie spread the cloth on the table, that leg broke." "Wait, you're talking about the lace tablecloth, right?" Davida nodded. Kardia continued in bewilderment, "How could *that* be heavy enough to do this?" Davida's closed hostility broke on her laughter. "You really don't know, do you?" "Uhm... no, I guess not." "A hedge wizard came in and fixed that leg..." Kardia interrupted, "A *wizard* fixed the table?" Comprehension dawned on her face, "Oh..." She sighed and then looked at Davida, and asked with some asperity, "Magic here is as cheap and easy as a meal?" Davida nodded. "Oh, no... but..." Kardia wrinkled her nose in confusion again, "I didn't..." She stood there and thought. Davida coughed lightly, startling Kardia out of her thoughts, "What? Didn't what?" Kardia's expression cleared, "I didn't know that magic was so common in Generica. Out where I come from, there isn't that much of it so it's expensive and rare. I mean... folks out on the farm wouldn't dream of fixing a table or a chair with magic." "Ha!" crowed Davida, "I knew it! Your work does dispell magic! I told Annie. How do you do it?" Kardia blinked in the face of the celebration and shrugged, "I just spin and knit or weave something with a variety of stinging nettle that's been dried and retted like flax. I observe a vow of silence while I do it, and it seems to work. What puzzles me is that I wasn't in a vow of silence when I made that tablecloth, though I was silent during a lot of it. I am now wondering if parts of it work for draining magic and if other parts don't or if it's a restriction that I don't need to do anymore." Davida's face fell, "But anyone can do stinging nettle cloth, it's just too work intensive for production, especially since it can't be done by mechanical or magical mass production techniques. Besides, it's a pain to work and with the finer varieties of flax that are appearing..." she shrugged, "There is no need for it. But I do know of some pieces folks have made for curiousity's sake, but no other pieces I know have your pieces' properties, though." "Mass production?" asked Kardia, feeling a little bit like confusion was a common affliction today. "Uhm... forgot, you're from those backwards lands..." Davida said with obvious pride in her Guild, "Mass production is when..." "I know what mass production is." said Kardia, cutting Davida off, and gritting her teeth. "I just didn't know that it could be driven by magic." Davida sniffed, "I guess that you don't know everything about mass production, then." Kardia sighed and rubbed both eyes with the heels of her hands. "I don't believe this..." she muttered to herself. When she looked up she found Davida gone and Peter looking at her. She turned on her left foot to look to see where Davida had gone and saw her leaving into the Hall. "Journeyman." said Peter. "Yes, sir?" At the tone, Kardia came around smartly. "Why did you not tell us about the magical capabilities of your work?" Kardia could read nothing into Peter's tone. "Uhm... I didn't think that the pieces that I sold you had those properties, actually. I hadn't taken all the precautions I thought I needed to take in order to inbue them with those capabilities." "Did you know that such garments might actually be dangerous to some of our clientele?" This time Peter's tone left no doubt as to his disapproval. "No, sir. I was just explaining to Journeyman... uhm... Davida, that magic isn't nearly as common where I'm from and so I hadn't even thought it would be a problem. Just as I hadn't thought that they could do what they did..." Kardia sighed. "I'm sorry. That's the explanation, but I guess that's no excuse. Did..." she swallowed her dread, "did anyone get hurt?" Peter looked her in the face, studying her for a long moment. Then the seriousness on his face broke as he grinned a wry grin. "No one was hurt, but Lady Ellen got a rather rude awakening the morning she tried on her new vest. The beauty spells she'd paid for were... well..." Kardia gaped, "Beauty spells?... Oh, dear..." she said helplessly. Peter nodded with a very long face, "Yes, indeed. A serious matter indeed." At Kardia's incredulous look, Peter broke into laughter and shook his head, "We're just going to have to be careful who we sell your work to, now." The smile turned warm, "There have been some who have gotten interested in the magical protection they might provide, so we can give you a better margin on them. If you'd told us about that to begin with we could probably have advanced you not only money but extra work. You might want to register you skills with the Mage Guild as well." Kardia nodded, "I've sorta done so... that's the second contract that I wanted to register here, it's through one of the Mage Guild members and for a curse lifting as well as the lace work...." "Pity..." said Peter and then shook his head. "What, sir?" He was silent for a while, and then smiled, "A pity that the magical draining characteristic is the main property our new buyers are looking at in those pieces. They don't have an inkling as to the workmanship that went into them. Just seems a pity..." Peter shook his head, "Well, the Guild makes its money where it can. Shall we get your other job registered?" Kardia grinned, "Yes, please, and, Sir,... as to the other... I guess knowing that folks like you and Master Annie who know your stuff admiring what I do is more than adequate appreciation for me. They don't know what they're looking at, so it... well... I guess it doesn't matter, does it?" Peter looked at her again with the appraising look then smiled, "No, I guess it doesn't." ----- [ADMIN: Thanks to Hutch for his help with 'Raelf's conversation, and there may be other details as to the breakfast after the night of the Archmage's meeting, but I'm trying to catch up with Chris Meadows and Andrea and Sheryl. WHEW! They run too fast... Grin...] -- Liralen Li | "Looking down on empty streets, all she can see are li@inigo.Data-IO.com | the dreams all made solid, are the dreams made real." aka Phyllis Rostykus | - "Mercy Street" by Peter Gabriel Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!uunet!pilchuck!li From: li@Data-IO.COM (Phyllis Rostykus) Subject: [AU] [HouseStorming] : "Sixday's Child" Message-ID: <1993May11.001201.10946@data-io.com> Keywords: Kadrys and Kardia Sender: news@data-io.com (The News) Organization: Data I/O Corporation References: <1993May11.000526.10767@data-io.com> Date: Tue, 11 May 1993 00:12:01 GMT Lines: 364 [ADMIN: Sections of this are posted on behalf of Andrea Evans] ------- Kardia returned to the Dragon's Inn ready to work. She waved at Andrea and went over to her and wrote, 'Where's the room?' on a wax tablet that she'd gotten for this purpose before. Then she waited a second, wondering if Andrea could read and realizing that she hadn't asked, she'd assumed. Kardia was greatly relieved when Andrea nodded. That was when Kardia noticed the pale man that sat opposite Andrea. A pale man with hair as black as a raven's wing and eyes that matched the hair. It took a small effort to look away and pay attention to what Andrea was saying. "Yes. It's all set up. Let me show you where it is. Kadrys... Oh." Andrea smiled, "Kadrys, this is Kardia Xvaramene. Kardia, this is Kadrys." The pale man stood with a grace that reminded Kardia of the restless movement of a black panther she'd once seen in a wild animal park. She smiled and bowed a small bow to him as he bowed back. "I'm going to show Kardia where her room is, I'll be back." and Andrea walked off into the hallway. Kardia took one look backwards and found Kadrys watching her with a look that had her heart pounding. She pulled the shawl closer around her shoulders and turned back to follow Andrea and felt herself blushing. Kardia frowned, shook her head and went to her room. * * * After the night before, the room that Andrea led Kardia to looked very primitive and rough in comparison. A bed, shelves built into the wall, a chair, a small table with a washbasin and a pitcher of water. The only light from a shuttered window. It was a rough rectangle, with the window the opposite wall of the door, the table and bed by the window. The shelves along the wall between the bed and the door. There was an oil lamp, Kardia noted with some satisfaction the light would be steadier and clearer than a candle and that would be good enough. She smiled at Andrea and wrote, 'Thanks'. Andrea left with a "Good luck." and closed the door. Kardia sighed, sat down, and used the flat end of her stylus to smooth the wax down again. She then got up, threw open the shutters to let all the light in that she could. The next thing she did was unpack her bag. First onto the bed was Kardia's shawl. The various needles and knitting needles then came out of the bag. She piled all of them onto the shawl and carefully wrapped them into it. The short flow of energy was pretty much the same as when she'd wrapped the single packet in the scarf. Kardia wasn't quite sure if that was because it was the breakage of the single connection or if it was because she couldn't tell the differences in power flow. She frowned just a touch. The basis of what had seemed to only be small powers had never really concerned her before. She'd never really thought of herself as being anything other than an ordinary person that had stumbled on a hard and long process that managed to get her and those she cared about out of magical trouble. The information that she'd gotten at the Weavers' Guild and that which 'Raelf and ar'Elya had given her was starting to make her think otherwise. Kardia still wasn't quite sure what to believe. The opening of her door startled the hell out of her. * * * Kadrys watched Kardia approach the table, his face a study in expressionlessness. Something about her, something quite indefinite, laid a light touch on his nameless instincts. He gazed intently at her. Only his secretive nature stopped the intense scrutiny from showing in his face. He mulled over the implications even as he rose to his feet to give her the locals' bow of formal greeting. What _was_ it about her that had made his calm heart beat faster? He was far too practised at introspection to be caught by surprise at his inner impulses. Yet he could _not_ isolate what it was about her that had stirred him into watchfulness. He absorbed the details of her appearance in a single eidetic glance, wondering whether the answer lay there. A face expressive more of strong character than of the demure beauty held up to women here as the ideal. Wilful wavy hair, the dark red of dry blood. The striking shade women often copied with henna leaves. Grey eyes that gathered the smoky light of the Inn. The faint lines round those eyes spoke of sorrows past, but her upright stance and firm stride told of a spirit that had never learned submission. Her gait seemed very slightly uneven: halting, as if she had recently injured a foot. Not too surprising: from the look of her legs, she had done a lot of travel on the Beggar's Carriage. 'Sixday's Child works hard for her living...' whispered an errant voice amid the echoing depths of his memories. But he had no time now to wonder about the fleeting phrase. 'She's staring. Worse, she's blushing. Just _listen_ to that heartrate. Kadrys, you idiot, you've studied her too long. Made it positively _obvious_...' he snarled at himself in chagrin that found no echo on his face as he broke the glance and gave her a quiet, disarming smile in farewell. As Andrea returned from showing Kardia to her room, Kadrys asked her about the older woman. He was intrigued to learn that she was a spinner and weaver, working on a blanket which would break a curse on Andrea's unicorn. Kadrys had resigned himself to the unicorn's caution. Let her human partner make whatever she wanted to out of the filly's reaction. There was not much he could do to change it. At least she had calmed down from her initial strenuous objections. Kadrys asked Andrea what Kardia's room number was. "I think I'd like to have a word with her..." he muttered, struggling with an unfamiliar uncertainty as to his motives. For once, he had no plans, no idea what he would say to her. Andrea grinned and shrugged "You can have as many words as you like, but I don't think she'll answer any of 'em." She replied to Kadrys' quizzical look, "Y'see, she's taken a vow of silence until the weaving is complete. She said it should take about three days..." Kadrys arched an eyebrow, and returned Andrea's teasing look. "All the better! Every man's dream: a woman who won't answer back!" He grinned and ducked as Andrea laughed and waved him away. As he climbed the stairs to the Inn's guest rooms, Kadrys' smile faded. 'Vows of silence... Weavings to break curses... Wellwell. There certainly _is_ more to this one than meets the eye. I wonder if that's what I sensed earlier. I'm not sure; it didn't seem dangerous. No feel of the intolerance of the hunter. That reaction of hers: whatever it was, I _don't_ think it was the excitement of sighting a target. But the disturbing part is, I'm just not _sure_. I'll have to look into this. Better to do it now, before she has a chance to settle in for whatever it is she has planned...' He opened the door, careful to make the tiny clumsy human noises as he saw that her back was turned. She spun round to face him, her bags spread open and half-unpacked on the bed and chair beside her. Her heartrate leaped at his entry and there was something a little like terror in her eyes. When she recognized him, the terror was muted, squashed, then gone. * * * Kardia had a hard time swallowing her terror at the unannounced entrance. Even after months here in Generica, she wasn't used to people just being able to walk in on a room that was ostensibly hers. When she saw who it was she had to swallow for a different reason. It was the dark, handsome one from the taproom, Kadrys, and his expression was somewhat contrite in the face of her reaction. She worked at calming herself with a few slow breaths and then raised one eyebrow at her unexpected visitor. "Apologies." he said quietly, "Andrea informed me of what you're doing for her and her unicorn and I was wondering if I might watch you at work." A tilt of the head from Kardia actually got her next question across. "Why? I am simply interested in curses and their workings." She heard the smile in his voice, but couldn't see it as he stayed on the darker, door side of the room. His eyes, though, were calm and steady. She blinked a little and then nodded. He was far more receptive to her body language than most were, she thought, as she indicated the lone chair. "Thank you," he said and quietly and smoothly pulled the chair into a position outside of her sunlight. She smiled in appreciation of him leaving her the light to work with as she returned to her unpacking. The first thing she did was dump the needles out of her shawl to hang the shawl up on the peg by the door, then she went back to the bed next to the window. Next out of the bag were her drawings of the day before, then the skeins of already finished thread. She dumped the rest of the bag out on the bed and put away her things and her clothes into the open shelves in the room. It felt good to actually have somewhere to put everything away, but it was slightly odd feeling his gaze on everything she did. She fingered the skein of thread that she'd finished the night before and put it aside. 'Raelf had said that there might be the possibility that the ambient magical fields in the newly created spinning wheel might have messed up the magics of her threads, and she wasn't about to hazard Sheryl's cover to that possibility. Perhaps 'Raelf would have a way of telling if the threads would work or not, later. Instead, she picked up one of the skeins that she'd had ready from before she had ever reached the city of Generica and she unbound it from the holding threads. It was the same skein as the one that she'd shown the guard the day she'd first entered the city. She looked around for a place to hang the skein from and met Kadrys' dark gaze. She found herself starting to blush again. He offered his slender hands and she grinned a little as she hung the loop of the skein on them. She then wound the beginning of the thread around her spread fingers, thrice, and then started a ball off one end of those three loops. She then started pulling the loops off the skein and his hands. Kardia then realized that Kadrys' hands were smooth enough not to catch on her thread. So, he was no weapons fighter, no farmer, and one who did no manual labor. The process was long and boring, and she couldn't help being slightly amazed that what had seemed such a dangerous being was quietly sitting there being an intelligent skein holder for her. Most people just tried to be a rack, but he was being intelligent about moving his hands after the first few loops so that the thread would pull off more easily and not take the whole skein with it. She also took the time to study him just a little more, noting the almost ultra-spare build, the way his eyes were almost always in shadow. The angles of his face were almost always somber, slightly pensive. At one point his eyes left the thread to meet hers, and she managed to meet them with a smile. She also, however, missed the next two winds onto her ball and she sighed, shook her head and undid them to put them back on, correctly. Her arms were tired by the time they were done, but Kadrys didn't even seem stiff after all the time holding the thread in front of him. She then had a ball with the other end of those loops still sticking out one side of it. She pulled at the end of those loops and had a ball of thread that fed the thread from the center of the ball, so the ball wouldn't be rolling around everywhere as she knit off it. She then stuck the pin of a ball holder through one part of the ball. One of the circular needles, 2.5 cm in size, came out and she put only 30 stitches into it. Then she sat down on the floor of the room, under the window, squarely in the sunshine and started knitting. It took half an hour to knit a square in the particular lacy stitch she'd designed after looking at the pattern of the curse through Sheryl's body. Kadrys took the small bit of parchment that she'd drawn the pattern on, and he studied it against the bit of fabric that was forming beneath her needles. Then he took a while studying her collection of knitting and sewing needles with expressionless eyes. Kardia found that it took some extra effort on her part to concentrate on her knitting instead of on the presence of this black clad man. Kardia then took the square off the needles, washed it in her washbasin, and pinned it out to dry on the top blanket of her bed. She measured the square as it lay on her bed, looked at her drawings, frowned, pulled out the 2cm needles and made another square as the first one dried. She washed and pinned the second, took the first one off, measured it again, and nodded. She measured the second square, frowned, and took out the 1.5cm needles and started yet another square. By the time she was half way through the third square, the second was dry, so she took the second one off the bed, and measured it with one raised eyebrow. She quickly unraveled the third square, took four double pointed 2.5cm needles out and started casting enough stitches to go around Sheryl's left rear leg. Kadrys looked a little surprised at the unraveling, "Why..." he trailed off. Kardia grinned and then pointed to another piece of parchment that had numbers scribbled all over it. Then the measurements around the stick figure of Sheryl's leg. "Oh... you need to have a certain number of repetitions of the... pattern?" she nodded encouragement, "... to go around each leg. So you're measuring the patterns to see if they'll fit. I understand." Kadrys had found it a very relaxing way to spend an afternoon. Kardia's quiet absorption, her patient deft movements, her tranquil silence, cast a spell in their own subtle way. Kadrys basked in the soothing aura of her devotion to her work. There was a fragile magic in it: the sigh of her breathing, as constant as the sea, the rustle of the thread as it pulled from the ball she had wound from his hands. An almost mystical, trancelike ambience underlay her concentration on the lace growing under her hands. She had been distracted, unsettled by him earlier, that much was clear to him. The reasons behind her strange sensitivity to his presence were a little less clear, and would bear some investigation later. He could not afford to allow what he was to become perceptible. If something was giving him away, he would _have_ to find out what it was. But now, her whole self was focussed on the strands, as delicate as hair, that she twisted into this web, strands that for all their seeming fragility, would when she was done with them, be powerful enough to break a curse. Her concentration was so complete, that she was obviously in some deep realm of the mind, divorced from the complaints of her body. He knew, looking at her, that her posture, bent for hours over her working hands, would certainly strain her shoulders, her back and neck. He contemplated offering to rub the tired muscles when she finally stirred, but decided against it. For whatever reason, she seemed to find him disconcerting enough at a distance. He thought that she would probably be too shy to want any such personal favour from him. The next time Kardia looked up it was because she couldn't see the work in her hands. She sighed and stood and stretched, hearing things pop and crackle in her back, across her shoulders. The sight of Kadrys across the room had Kardia thinking a little ruefully that those hands might be nice on her tight shoulders, but she shrugged at the thought. She stretched her hands and felt them relax just a touch. She smiled at Kadrys and then laid out what she'd finished. She was very surprised and impressed with his quiet patience. Most people would have been bored stiff by someone that was putting single stitches at a time into something and not speaking. One rear leg section was already finished, along with the attachments necessary to make it possible to put it onto Sheryl so that it wouldn't move for the minute necessary to dispell the curse. She was beginning the left rear leg, and the light was too dim for her to see the stitches of the first row in order to establish the pattern properly. Her stomach rumbled, so she hooked the wax tablet to her belt, next to the ball of thread, and scooped up the new loop of her knitting to take out with her to the main room. * * * As Kardia stood to leave, Kadrys reached for her shawl, intending to drape it over her as she passed him on her way to the door. At the move, she gasped in surprise, the sound blending into Kadrys' sudden hissing intake of breath. He dropped the shawl and clutched his hand, turning hastily to put his back to her. Under the cover of his hunched shoulders, Kadrys assessed the damage at a glance. His hand was withered as if with age, the fingers gnarled and fragile, little more than dried skin stretched tight over bone. Pain clawed at him, and he accepted it, absorbed it, ignored it. He knew he would have to stall, give himself time to heal. Kardia hurried across the room and pulled at his arm, trying to turn him round to face her. He let the arm give a little without allowing himself to get pulled round. "It's nothing," he muttered, shaking his head. Kardia frowned, clutching his shoulder in both hands and hauling at it, frantic to see what had happened. He was momentarily surprised at the strength in those delicate-seeming hands. The next instant, he allowed his tense, hunched posture to relax a little. He let her pull him round to face her, but still held his hand hidden from her. His hand was throbbing as blood rushed to the maimed tissue, flooding it, restoring it. But it was still too soon. Time. He needed more time. As he faced her, he saw that her face was flushed from exertion and worry. Her eyes glittered with silent indignation as he moved his arm behind his back. She gritted her teeth, clenched her fists and stamped in sheer exasperation, her foot making an oddly loud thud on the floorboards. She thrust out her hand, palm upwards in an obvious "_Show_me!_" gesture. The set of her features, the thin line of her mouth brooked no denial. Slowly, Kadrys extended his hand. Kardia seized it in both of hers, examining it with professional thoroughness, bending the fingers and feeling the joints with the skill of one used to performing such examinations. She looked up from the examination, searching his face. Bafflement and relief struggled in her eyes. Kadrys sighed. "Andrea may or may not have told you this, but she was looking for people to help her remove traps from her new home. I've offered her my assistance." He paused, and a hint of reluctance, almost of shame, crept into his voice. "...Yes, I'm afraid I am a thief. And in my profession, manual skill is very important. I've had permanent dexterity-enhancing spells cast on my hands. Your shawl disrupted them. It was only temporary. As you can see, I'm fine now. But at the time, the disruption was painful. That and my surprise made me cry out. I am sorry to have worried you with my accident." Kardia nodded, slowly. It took another moment before the questioning intentness faded from her glance. Kadrys essayed a small smile, and looked relieved when it was returned. Inwardly, he allowed himself a mental sigh. 'Ahhwell. It could've been worse, I suppose.' he thought. 'If she'd been beside me at the time, it would've been much harder to hide what happened. I hope she believes that excuse. Only time will tell if she doesn't...' He looked down. Though she was no longer staring into his face with that searching gaze, she still held his hand tightly in both of hers. She followed the direction of his eyes, and suddenly dropped his hand, turning away, ostensibly to pick up her dropped shawl. But he could feel the radiated heat of her blush even from where he stood. He uncurled his fingers, silently revelling in the remembered softness of her touch, the way its living warmth had erased the final echoes of his earlier pain. A faint smile traced the corner of his mouth as he followed her out. -- Liralen Li | "Looking down on empty streets, all she can see are li@inigo.Data-IO.com | the dreams all made solid, are the dreams made real." aka Phyllis Rostykus | - "Mercy Street" by Peter Gabriel